Quintiq, a leading provider of advanced planning and scheduling solutions, has announced that the Queensland section of the Royal Flying Doctor Service of Australia (RFDS), one of the largest and most comprehensive aero-medical organisations in the world, has selected Quintiq for the supply of a multi-resource planning solution.

The Quintiq solution will unify RFDS’ planning processes, enabling the organisation to optimally utilise its prime resources and reduce administrative expenses associated with planning.

RFDS, a non-profit organisation supported by the Commonwealth and State Governments, employs the latest technologies in aviation, medical devices and communications to deliver extensive primary health care and 24-hour emergency service to people throughout the remote areas of Australia. In Queensland, RFDS has a fleet of 17 aircraft operating from 7 bases located across the state and conducts more than 80,000 patient consultations per year.

A unified planning system

The Quintiq solution will help RFDS to improve efficiencies and reduce costs in multiple ways. Having a unified planning system throughout the organisation will facilitate wider use of resources by enabling better cooperation and communication between the numerous bases. The improved resource utilisation will reduce RFDS’ demand of external resources, such as accommodation and chartered aircraft.

By integrating the planning processes, the solution will give RFDS’ managers access to more consistent information for improved decision-making. Additionally, Quintiq will replace labour-intensive planning processes currently performed by RFDS’ planners, thereby lowering labour expenses, reducing administrative inefficiencies and eliminating errors that traditionally occur with manual rostering processes.

Reducing the costs of planning

“We selected Quintiq as a strategic planning tool to help us unify our planning processes and reduce overall costs,” says Nino Di Marco, CEO of the RFDS Queensland Section. “We are seeing demand for our services grow through the provision of a broader range of services to a growing number of people. We are very confident that Quintiq will support our growing needs well into the future.”

Paul Shepherd, business unit director at Quintiq, says: “The Royal Flying Doctor Service is an Australian icon known throughout the world. We are very pleased to be supporting them in reducing costs and improving efficiencies as we know that the results will benefit so many people. We look forward to making this a successful project for them as we continue to be the multi-resource planning solution of choice.”

The Quintiq team is currently implementing the solution, with completion planned for February 2010.

Quintiq provides advanced planning, scheduling and supply chain management solutions. The fast-growing Dutch company, established in 1997, offers software for planning and optimising complex business processes throughout the enterprise. Headquartered in the Netherlands, Quintiq has subsidiaries in Australia, China, Finland, Germany, Malaysia, the UK and the US, with implementations in 68 countries.